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ARKANSAS MISSOURI RAILROAD CUSTOMER SERVICE Arkansas Missouri Railroad has recently upgraded its computer system. We currently have twenty-two network users; however, with this upgrade, we now have the capability to have seventy users. The existing IRCS software was recently upgraded by RMI. We can currently run EDI, Car Hire, and Train II. One stand alone computer station is for our scale reader that Arkansas Missouri Railroad has set up. We also have an AEI reader in Monett, MO, that links up to our system in Springdale, Arkansas. There is a disaster recovery plan in place in case of a severe system crash due to unforeseen forces. We feel the changes that have been made have put Arkansas Missouri Railroad ahead of most short lines and will enable us to grow for years to come. We have established a weekly car order program for ten sand customers, six refrigeration customers and two reload facilities. All the customers project what they will need for the week (empty boxes, flats, reefers, and hoppers, loads of sand) and when they would like to have the cars. Continual communication with Arkansas Missouri Railroad allows our customers to increase their business and project the cars they will need for the week. This reduces problems with the movement of railcars and allows the customer to anticipate the direction rail movement will take. This, in turn, also allows our customers to have more information about their shipments and they are able to pass this news on to their customers. The crews have a customer sheet attached to the switch list each day. This gives the crews a list of all the customers who need a switch on one sheet and eliminates the crews missing vital information. The switch list is also marked. The customer sheet is used for requests, spotting and pulling instruction, or if the movement is hot (first move of the day). The sheet also allows the crews to respond if there are conditions or problems that interferred with car handling. Faster and better service are the primary goals for the Arkansas Missouri Railroad. Any time a car is released as an empty or a load, our customers know to fax a release into the Agency. All loads must have the billing to be released from the customer. This reduces problems with demurrage. The average time from an empty or loaded car to sit at the customer is less than twenty-four hours on the Arkansas Missouri Railroad line. Furthermore, the average time for a car to on line before it goes to a customer is less than twenty-four hours. Arkansas Missouri Railroad has minimal track space for storage with the capacity to hold 150 cars in Springdale and 150 cars in Fort Smith. The lack of track space makes it necessary to move cars off line as soon as possible, which, in turn, makes for lower car hire costs. Approximately 3,000 loads move through this line each month. Arkansas Missouri Railroad's policy has always been open door. The Arkansas Missouri Railroad's Agency department is open continuously from 10:00pm, Sunday, to 11:00pm, Friday. The Agency is also open Saturday from 7:00am to 12:00pm. The customer can call or come by with any questions, inquires, or problems. We encourage all the customers to come and learn more about the railroad. Finally, we have also been able to improve many of our services by sending out opinion polls yearly to our customers so that they can respond to our service, quality and communication techniques. SIGNAL DEPARTMENT Click here to go back to The Story Behind Arkansas Missouri Railroad. |
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